U.S. military team deploys to Yemen to help rout al-Qaeda militants

The Pentagon has deployed a small number of U.S. military personnel to Yemen as part of a larger effort to help an Arab ground force battling al-Qaeda around a key port city, the U.S. military said Friday. The team was deployed about two weeks ago to support a coalition of the United Arab Emirates and Yemeni ground forces […]

The Giant Al Qaeda Defeat That No One’s Talking About

Something significant and positive just happened in the Middle East, and most Americans are not aware of it. The United Arab Emirates, under the banner of a Saudi-led coalition, late last month delivered a major blow to the most lethal Al Qaeda group on the planet—Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the primary Islamic […]

CIA Director: ’28 pages’ Contain Inaccurate Information

CIA Director John Brennan said Sunday that releasing the 28 classified pages from the 9/11 Commission report would be a mistake because they contain inaccurate, un-vetted information that could be used to tie Saudi Arabia to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. “This chapter was kept out because of concerns about sensitive methods, investigative actions, […]

Sweden Is Warned of Possible ISIS Attack Plot Targeting Stockholm

The Iraqi government has warned Sweden that the terror group ISIS may be targeting that country’s capital of Stockholm, a senior Iraqi security official told NBC News Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Iraq found intelligence “about an ISIS plan to target the Swedish capital Stockholm,” involving seven or eight Iraqi […]

War in Yemen takes a major turn with offensive against al-Qaeda

Signaling a major shift in Yemen’s grinding civil war, Saudi-backed forces on Sunday appeared to mount a large-scale offensive to drive militants aligned with al-Qaeda out of their strongholds in the country’s south. Under cover of airstrikes from a coalition led by Saudi Arabia, fighters aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government pushed toward the city […]

At least 12 killed in joint US-Afghan raid targeting suspected Al Qaeda member

Twelve people, including three children, were killed when Afghan and U.S. forces conducted a raid on the house of a suspected Al Qaeda member in east Afghanistan, according to a confidential report and people familiar with the matter. The Wall Street Journal reviewed an Afghan interior ministry incident report that detailed the early Friday operation […]

The Librarian Who Saved Timbuktu’s Cultural Treasures From al Qaeda

For custodians of the ancient heritage of the Middle East and North Africa, the recent rise of Islamist extremist groups has posed a dire challenge. Since its seizure of the historic Iraqi city of Mosul in early 2014, Islamic State has pillaged and demolished mosques, shrines, churches and other sacred sites across the region. The […]

Al Qaeda re-emerges as challenge for U.S., NATO in Afghanistan

Leadership turmoil within the Taliban since the death of the militant group’s founder has fueled closer links with foreign groups like al Qaeda, the new commander of international forces in Afghanistan said, complicating counter-terrorism efforts. In an interview with Reuters, General John Nicholson pointed to what U.S. officials saw as a shift in the Taliban’s […]